Ol Joro Orok ATC Providing Irish Potato Clean Planting Materials

As early as 6 in the morning, trucks are spotted speeding diverting to the left from Nyahururu town towards Ol Kalou, a routine the residents say are used to on Tuesdays and Thursdays headed to pick Irish potato seedlings.

The trucks are racing to Ol Joro Orok Agricultural Training College to collect some parcels that must be at the designated time, just like in the case with Miraa, but parcels collected at Ol Joro Orok are even more delicate and equally perishable, meant for planting.

Among the early arrivals is Mr Joseph Muiruri, a potato farmer and seed multiplication expert, here to collect a batch of planting materials, and, to get served on time and be at the farm, he had to wake up by 5 am, prepare, and drive the 40 kilometers from his Rurii home to the ATC. Others from as far as Bungoma, Mwingi, parts of Rift-Valley, and one from Rwanda must have spent long hours at the ATC, a facility that has risen from the dust to become a champion and reliable source of certified potato seeds and seedlings.

“There was a time that no one thought about the ATC, especially after devolution, nothing was happening, O Joro Orok ATC was among the many similar institutions that collapsed with devolution, but we are today proud of it. It’s majestically reclaiming its lost glory,” said Muiruri.

The institution has entrenched itself as a reliable potato seed supplier, aimed at reducing the gap to accessible clean potato planting materials, which currently stands at about 5 percent, according to research by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA).

The survey, done last year shows that the uptake of certified seeds is low among the small-scale Irish potato growers at only 2 percent of the 800, 000 smallholder farmers while the rest use recycled seeds. Apart from the high cost of production, experts blame the stagnated growth of the crop on a lack of clean planting materials resulting in sustained poor harvests.

The KIPPRA survey shows that production has stagnated at 7 tonnes per hectare, against a potential of 40 tonnes per acre, despite the tubers being listed second staple food after maize. Efforts and determination by the Ol Joro Orok ATC to address the seeds shortage have attracted both local and international players in food security and agribusiness.

Among them is the European Union which has constructed and equipped a potato seed propagation laboratory and seed storage cold room for Sh116 million Mr David Kuria, in charge of the Ol Joro Orok ATC potato seed multiplication, agrees that the cost of clean planting material is a challenge to many small-scale farmers, which he attributes to few entities involved in the venture that is profit-driven and the high costs of seed multiplication investments.

“The number of Irish potato growers interested in clean seed planting material is very high, but the cost of producing them is very high, still, we can’t meet the supply-demand. Our fully equipped cold storage is still unutilized since the seeds are booked well in advance, we are in a situation where might have to book up to three months in advance. We are only able to sell to large-scale farmers whom we contract to multiply to make the seeds available to smallholders. There is a serious scarcity of certified seeds yet the demand is growing by the day,” said Mr Kuria.

He says even with contracted and licensed seed multipliers, the supply is still low to smallholder farmers at 10 percent, and out of this, only 7 percent is certified seed while the 3 percent is clean seed, while all other farmers use recycled seeds. Mr Kuria explains that one acre requires 20 bags of 50 kilos each at an average of Sh4,000 per bag equivalent to Sh80,000.

“The county government of Nyandarua has come up with a sustainable way of Irish potato seed multiplication for all farmers whether large or small scale. We have two methods, use of mini tubers and apical cuttings,” explains Mr Kuria.

Apical cuttings simply mean Irish potato cuttings done at the laboratories and greenhouses that have roots ready for transplant normally developed from tissue culture plantlets. Rooted apical cuttings are gaining more popularity with more farmers embracing them.

Mr. Kuria explains that the rooted apical cuttings are becoming popular since if one intends to plant five acres, they buy materials for half an acre in a formula he describes as one buys 10th of planting materials for the acreage they want to plant.

Once the farmer plants the 10th of the materials he gets enough material for the entire land, with each plant giving a farmer between 10 and 25 Irish potato seedlings, which simply means if one needs to plant 10 acres of potato, they plant the rooted apical cuttings in one acre.

He explains that a farmer will require 20, 000 seedlings to plant in an acre farm, each seedling retailing at Sh5, meaning Sh100, 000 for seedlings for one acre which will produce seeds enough to plant in 10 acres, whereas, with the clean planting materials at Sh4, 000 per bag, a farmer will spend Sh800, 000 for the 10 acres.

The Irish potato seeds from the rooted apical cuttings are mature for harvest in three months. Under the contract farming arrangement, the contracted farmer sells the generated seeds to the ATC, which are sold to small-scale farmers.

To qualify for the contract farming for seed multiplication agreement, a farmer must own more than 5 acres for rotation purposes, and the process is closely monitored by ATC staff and the Kenya Plants Health Inspectorate Service, which has also camped at the ATC for monitoring and guidance purposes. He says that with the interventions, it will take about five years for small-scale farmers to feel the availability of the seeds, adding that for that to be achieved, the ATC will require 60 greenhouses against the current five, which makes the laboratory and the cold-rooms storage underutilized.

 “We need to contract as many farmers as possible, our target is 10, 000 acres. To further address the shortage to make the seeds accessible to farmers we are engaging with institutions with large tracks of land. We have already engaged Eldoret University Laikipia Campus, Egerton University, and Karatina University. They will get planting materials from us to multiply, we are targeting an average of 5,000 acres from the universities while the other 5, 000 will be from large-scale farmers,” explained Mr Kuria.

Mr Muiruri is among farmers embracing both apical and mini-tubers, explaining that mini-tubers give him between 35 and 45 clean seeds replanting the seeds for up to 4 seasons. About the apical, he says they are better than mini-tubers since they are available on booking while with mini-tubers a farmer must wait for the ATC to generate the seeds.

“I order my apical with a timing of 21 days to plant. Apical cuttings have up to 6 generations compared to mini tubers that have 4 generations. Apical production is also higher producing 25 to 35 mini-tubers which when planted produce 35 to 45 tubers. This technology is reliable to farmers since one can get seeds when they need them, and also one can buy the quantities they can afford. Mini tubers are packaged with 100 seeds per pack while a tray of main tubers has 200 seeds which is affordable to both large and small-scale farmers. The other advantage with ATC is that the farmers are trained there before planting,” said the farmer.

On production, Mr Muiruri who currently has 10 acres under seed multiplications says the seeds produce 3 times better than recycled materials. On average, the recycled seeds produce 20 to 30 bags of potatoes while the clean materials produce above 100 bags per acre and up to 150 bags in best agronomy practices.

Apart from the training, ATC agronomists and trainers still make follow-ups at the farms to ensure success, says the farmer, encouraging farmers to partner with the ATC. Mr Muchai Maina, Principal Ol Joro Orok ATC says the institution, whose core mandate is to train farmers to address agricultural gaps has recorded increased visitors, both learners and in Agri-tourism.

“We have had to expand our training facilities to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. Demand has also forced us to introduce new packages for families, we have families bringing their children to interact with agricultural activities, and we have children that have never interacted with livestock and farms,” said Mr Maina.

Ms Florence Njeri, the training coordinator attributes the ATC success story to a conducive working environment by the county government.

“There was a time it felt boring being here, but I can tell you that we now need some additional staff, the place is busy, we had about 10 cows which have increased to 30. We have introduced rabbits and dairy goat farming for training purposes and also support Agri-tourism. Our visitors enjoy foods grown at the farm, it’s really exciting for them to witness vegetables harvested directly from the farms, milk from cows, and so on, and not from the markets or supermarkets,” said Ms. Njeri, adding that apart from the training, the institution has also introduced 3 exhibitions in a year.

Francis Miring’u, the CEC Agriculture department attributes the resurrection of the ATC to giving them some financial autonomy. “The institutions were since devolution poorly funded. They generated revenue for the county government without anything back. What is happening now is that they can spend money generated to finance their activities, for example, it was very bureaucratic to access training funds, it would take months from approval to accessing the funds such that the activity will have been overtaken by events,” said Mr Miring’u.

He revealed that Governor Kiarie Badilisha has banned government meetings and trainings being conducted in hotels outside the county, and must all be held at the ATC facilities at Ol Joro Orok or Njabini ATC. The effectiveness of financial autonomy has motivated other government entities, none governmental organizations, and private entities to engage.